Mirror Universe Turnabout
by BobH2
Summary: They may be darker and more twisted, but the Enterprise of the mirror universe must have had many of the same encounters as the regular Enterprise. This is one of them.
1. Chapter 1

I beamed down to Camus II with a security team of five redshirts loyal to me, materializing in a large, recently-unearthed subterranean chamber. Janice Lester and her toady Arthur Coleman were waiting for us, as arranged. My redshirts fanned out, checking for any nasty surprises in the rooms beyond while Janice shook her head, a look of amused contempt on her beautiful face.

"Do we have to go through this routine every time we meet?" she asked. "I would have thought you knew me well enough to trust me by now, Jim."

"I didn't rise to be captain of the ISS Enterprise by trusting people," I said, "and you are a grave robber, so..."

"I really hate that term."

"What else would you call someone who sneaks onto worlds with long dead civilisations ahead of official Empire teams, digs up what she can before they get there, then sells it on the black market?"

"I prefer 'freelance archaeologist'."

"Are you still calling yourself 'Doctor'?"

"Why not?" she said, shrugging, "Academic titles impress some people and help with sales."

"All clear, Captain," said the leader of the redshirts when their security sweep was complete, "though there are several dead bodies a few chambers away."

"My diggers," explained Janice. "When they'd completed the excavations that got us down to this complex they demanded extra. I'm a businesswoman with her profit margin to consider, so they didn't really leave me any choice. Could your boys dispose of them for me?"

"See to it, Williams."

"Very good, sir," replied the redshirt leader. "OK men, let's get this done."

I approved of Janice's ruthlessness in pursuit of profit. It made her predictable, and predictable was good. When my men had left the chamber I turned my attention back to her.

"Something else to add to my file on you," I said, "and if that file ever found its way to Starfleet you'd be sent to prison for a long, long time - if they didn't decide to execute you, that is."

"That's always been an option for you, Jim."

She sounded amused by the threat, self-satisfied. Irritated, I reached out and grabbed her by the throat.

"I could snap your neck like a twig if I wanted to."

"You could," she replied, not even slightly perturbed, "but both that and turning me in would bring an end to what's been a highly lucrative relationship for both of us."

I removed my hand and grinned wolfishly at her. Unlike most women, she refused to be intimidated by me.

"And don't get any ideas about having someone watch us from the Enterprise with your Tantalus device," she said, holding up her right arm to draw my attention to an unremarkable looking wristband she was wearing. "When I sold it to you I held this back for myself. It blocks the device."

"Very cautious of you," I said, "but unnecessary. No one is watching."

This was a lie. I had instructed my concubine to keep an eye on me. I liked her to have my back, but I didn't really believe I was in any danger from Janice. She was right that we had enjoyed a mutually profitable relationship for many years now and neither of us was going to risk destroying that. I looked around me, taking in the boxes, loose baggage and equipment strewn around the floor and the small camp bed sitting in an alcove.

"Have you arranged for Uhura to beam down ten minutes after you as I asked?"

"Of course," I replied, "and she trusts me enough that she'll be coming alone. So where's this new discovery of yours I've crossed a dozen light years to see?"

"Over here," said Arthur Coleman, indicating what I had taken to be some sort of decorative feature since it seemed to grow from the floor of the chamber.

"It speaks!" I said, sneeringly. I'd never liked Coleman. His obsessive, obsequious devotion to Janice was creepy and unmanly, particularly since her attitude towards him was usually one of barely-concealed distain. I crossed over to the machine to take a closer look.

"So this is it," I said, turning to face Janice, "and you need Uhura down here in order to show me what it does?"

"Actually, no, we don't," she said pointing a small handheld device at me. She pressed the button on top of this and I instantly froze, unable to move a muscle.

"Ah Jim," she laughed, coming over and standing on the machine next to me, "Jim, Jim, Jim. You're making this too easy. I expected better of you. At the very least, a man should be able to hold on to his manhood."

'Manhood'? What was she talking about?

Grinning triumphantly, she pressed a switch on a console next to the machine and I immediately felt an awful tugging sensation all through my body, as if something was being ripped from it. There was a brief moment when I seemed to be looking through two pairs of eyes, then I was looking through only one pair.

But they weren't my eyes.

Someone swaggered into view from my left. When I realized who it was I was overcome with shock and horror, because the person I was looking at was me, James T. Kirk, captain of the ISS Enterprise.

"You let your guard down, Jim, and I seized my opportunity." The voice was mine, but it was Janice Lester behind those eyes. "That's how things are done on board your starship, how they're done throughout the Terran Empire, and how they were done in 2063 when Zephram Cochrane conducted our first ever warp flight and drew the attention of a passing Vulcan ship. You remember the story of what happened next, I'm sure. When the naively trusting Vulcans landed expecting a peaceful first contact, Cochrane killed their leader with a concealed weapon then he and his townspeople seized the Vulcan ship. When opportunity presented itself he took it. From that bold act, from that captured technology, the Terran Empire was born."

Janice pressed a button on the console and, freed from the paralysis that had held me in place, I toppled forward into her now powerful arms. I was so drained I was barely able to move, but I still noticed Arthur Coleman standing in the doorway, clearly watching for my returning security team. I could hear phasers set to on maximum power being fired some distance away. Maximum power meant complete disintegration. All that would be left of the bodies were free-floating atoms.

"After Empress Sato was deposed during the early days of the Empire, women were removed from positions of power, made subordinate to men," said Janice, effortlessly picking me up with her stolen strength and carrying me over to the camp bed. "And quite right, too. The slyness and scheming of women has its place, but it was primarily male strength and aggression that allowed the Empire to grow as it has."

"The redshirts are coming back!" warned Coleman, seconds before they returned.

"All bodies have been disposed of, Captain," said Williams.

"Very good," replied Janice. "You and your men return to the ship. I'll beam up shortly."

"Captain?"

"It's alright, Mr Williams, I'll be in no danger here by myself. That will be all."

"Aye, Captain," replied Williams, frowning at the sight of me lying on the camp bed, feebly trying to summon him to me. Ignoring me, he pulled his communicator out.

"Five to beam up, Mr Scott," he said, and seconds later they were gone.

"We still have a few minutes before Lt Uhura joins us," said Janice, "so where was I...? Ah yes. So you see my problem? I was ambitious, but I was a woman. I was perfectly comfortable being a woman, not gender dysphoric in any clinical sense, but only men could command starships. Since I was a child I've known it was my destiny to captain one, but to do so I had to become a man. I wasn't sure how best to accomplish all this so I consulted the seers of Aragon IV."

"Who?" I managed to ask, the effort of doing so exhausting me.

"Mystics who can allegedly see all the paths a person's life might take and who can set them on the right one to achieve the future they want. Most people on other worlds take them no more seriously than we do fairground fortune-tellers on Earth, but I'd heard enough intriguing reports to believe they might actually have the abilities they claimed. I managed to get to Aragon IV and the High Seer himself saw me, the most powerful of all their seers. It was he who set me on the path that led me to Camus II, he who told me the route to what I sought was xenoarchaeology. He pointed me towards my destiny ...to _our_ destiny; because if it was my destiny to become Jim Kirk, clearly it was just as much your destiny to end up as Janice Lester. So we're both now who we're supposed to be, and Camus II is where our new lives begin. When I asked the High Seer why someone as important as him chose to guide me, he said 'Because the path you seek is one that will also free us from the Empire's yoke'."

We were interrupted by the sound that accompanies someone beaming in, and I watched helplessly as Uhura materialised in the chamber, unable to warn her or to aid her in any way. Dark-skinned, stunningly beautiful, and a prodigiously gifted communications officer, Uhura was also loyal to Captain Kirk. Seeing Janice she went to her immediately, believing her to be me.

"Reporting as ordered, Captain."

"Good, good. Before we get started I need you to stand over there," said Janice, indicating the machine.

"Sir?"

"I'll explain shortly, Lieutenant, in the meantime please do as I ask."

Puzzled, but seeing nothing to be concerned about, she did as Janice requested. As soon as she was in position, Janice pulled out the handheld device she had used before and activated it, freezing Uhura in place.

"No!" said Arthur Coleman, finally realising what this must mean. "I won't do it!"

"Yes you will, Arthur," said Janice, aiming my phaser at him. "You'll do as you're told, just like you always do."

"I don't want to be Uhura!"

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that _I_ want you to be her."

"But there's no way I can pull it off. You paid that disgraced ex-Empire Commodore, Matt Decker, to train you in how to run a starship, but I don't know how to be a communications officer."

"You won't need to, Arthur. Now get in the machine."

With obvious reluctance, he did as she ordered. Janice walked over to the machine's controls and activated them. I'm not sure what I expected, but all I saw was Arthur Coleman's body suddenly freeze as the machine began to pulse, building to a deafening hum. In a few seconds it was over. The noise and the lights subsided, then Uhura shook herself and stepped down off the machine.

Only it wasn't Uhura, not anymore.

"I...I can't believe you did this to me," she said, running her fingers over the unfamiliar contours of her face, a look of betrayal in her large, brown eyes.

"When nature made you male it made a mistake," said Janice, "because you were never much of a man, but now I've fixed that. This body is a better fit for the real you."

"Change me back! I demand you change me back!"

"That wouldn't fit in with my plans at all," said Janice, "and you need to learn your place. A woman does not make demands of a man. A woman complies with his demands."

So saying, Janice raised my phaser and fired it at the form of Arthur Coleman, still standing frozen on the machine. That form glowed brightly for a moment then faded away, disintegrated.

The original Uhura was dead; the new one was frantic.

"No!" she screamed. "You've destroyed my body!"

"My report will show that Dr Coleman took Lt Uhura hostage in an attempt to prevent me from arresting Miss Lester for crimes against the Empire, crimes which I have built up a dossier about. In the ensuing struggle I heroically rescued Lt Uhura but was forced to kill Dr Coleman. As I did so he got off a final shot from his phaser, injuring Miss Lester. We three will now beam up to the Enterprise and after receiving medical attention Miss Lester will be placed in the brig where she will be confined until such time as she can be taken before an Empire court to answer for her crimes."

"Why?" I managed to gasp.

"Because of who you are. If I thought you'd accept you're a woman now and always will be, that you were willing to move on and seek happiness in your new life, I'd be prepared to let you do so. But we both know that's not going to happen. No, you'll devote all your considerable talents to finding a way of getting this body back, and I can't have that. Far safer to deliver you up to the Empire's tender mercies. I'm sorry, Janice, truly I am, but that's the way it has to be."

"And me? What am I supposed to do on the Enterprise?" asked the new Uhura in a small voice.

"You'll soon find out. Now, there's one last thing I need to do before we beam up to the Enterprise."

Rummaging in one of the cases strewn around the chamber, she pulled out a container about the same length as my forearm. There was a hiss of escaping gas as she opened it, gas which formed a thin white mist on contact with the warmer air of the chamber. Using a pair of tongs, Janice lifted something out of the container and carried it over to me. It appeared to be a strip of some sort of extremely thin, translucent material and it was wriggling slightly, as if it was alive.

"I know what you're thinking," said Janice, "and no, it's not alive. At least, not in the conventional sense. This is a bio-collar. It's made using biological circuitry that mimics life to some degree, in that it's capable of limited movement and has a rudimentary intelligence. I've programmed it to prevent you from being able to divulge that you, me, and Uhura here have ever been anyone other than who we appear to be. Now all I need to do is install it."

'Install'? What could she mean by...oh no!

Using the tongs, she carefully laid the strip across my throat. It was cold, and squirmed a little as if trying to make itself more comfortable, and then I couldn't feel it anymore. Janice held up a mirror so I could see my throat. There was nothing there, nothing at all. The skin appeared fresh and entirely unblemished.

"Amazing, isn't it?" she said. "It gets absorbed into the body so quickly no one would ever know it was there. But it is. Oh, and before I forget..."

She stripped the wristband that hid its wearer from the Tantalus Field off my wrist, placed it on her own, then lifted me from the camp bed.

"Right, Uhura, tell the Enterprise three to beam up."

'Uhura' hesitated, indecision clouding those striking features. Strange that I already thought of her as female, accepting her gender as being that of her body when I hadn't with Janice. Deciding she had no choice but to do as Janice had ordered, she took out her communicator.

"Enterprise, this is Uhura. On my position, three to beam up."

And that was when I finally lost consciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

I awoke to find myself lying on a bed in the Enterprise's sickbay, with Christine Chapel looming over me, looking as stern and severe in her jet black nurse's uniform as she always did.

"Good morning, Janice," she said, fixing me with that intense, unblinking stare.

I was securely strapped to the bed, so securely in fact that the straps were cutting into the flesh of my arms.

"Nurse Chapel," I said, "I'm...I'm..."

I tried to tell her I was really Jim Kirk but the words died in my throat. I tried again.

"Janice Lester," I said, "she...I..."

"Yes, you're Janice Lester," said Nurse Chapel, briskly. "Some confusion is only to be expected in your condition."

This obviously wasn't going to work. I'd need another approach.

"These restraints are very tight."

"Yes they are, aren't they?" she agreed, "I made them as tight as I could. Do they hurt?"

"Yes."

"That's good. Pain is good. Pain lets us know we're alive. Do you enjoy pain, Janice?"

"No, not really. Could you release me and give me something I can write with, please?"

"If you insist," she said, sounding disappointed.

She undid the straps and, while I was rubbing feeling back into my arms, rummaged around in a drawer, producing a paper pad and a pencil. I took them from her and wrote: I am Captain James T Kirk.

I gave her back the pad and she read what I'd written, looking puzzled.

"I don't understand," she said.

"Please read it back to me."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"I wouldn't know how."

She handed the pad back to me. Despite what I thought I'd written, what it actually said was: I am Pncgnva Wnzrf G Xvex.

It appeared the bio-collar wouldn't let me write what had happened either. Looking down, I saw that my clothes had been swapped for a blue, standard issue medical patient's robe. I gave Christine a questioning look.

"I changed you out of your clothes and into the robe myself," she explained, "and I must say that's quite the hot little body you have there, Janice; your skin...so creamy and so soft. I'd love to explore its limits with you some time, to help you find that sweet point where pain becomes pleasure, and to transport you to levels of ecstasy you've never dreamed of. Would you like me to do that for you, Janice?"

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll pass."

I'd seen inside Nurse Chapel's quarters, seen the whips, straps, chains and 'toys' she used in pursuit of her belief that pain was the only true route to pleasure. It was a belief she was positively evangelical in pursuing, but it held no appeal for me. That was more Mr Sulu's thing, though I had once had to reprimand him after a session with Nurse Chapel left him too sore to be able to sit in his seat at helm.

"Suit yourself," said Christine, with a shrug, "but you don't know what you're missing."

No, I didn't, nor did I have any great desire to find out. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up. I was now fully awake for the first time since Janice Lester had put my mind in her body, and acutely aware of how different it was from my own. I was smaller, weaker, a woman. Crossing over to the mirror felt very strange. My now wider hips, my larger butt, and my breasts all contributed to a very different weight distribution than I was used to giving me a much altered gait. But it was looking into the mirror and seeing my new face for the first time that really brought everything crashing home, that made this _real_. In my head it was still me, still Jim Kirk looking into that mirror, but it was undeniably Janice Lester staring back at me. She blinked when I did, pursed her lips as I pursed mine, and when I raised my hands to my face, it was her long, slender fingers I saw, both in front of my face and reflecting back from in front of hers. I used to have good hands, strong hands, hands powerful enough to strangle someone with or even to break their neck, but these...? What damage could I inflict with these if I needed to hurt someone? Was I supposed to scratch out their eyes? Unless and until I could reverse what had happened, this was who I was now. If I couldn't reverse it I would be Janice Lester until the day I died.

With ironic if impeccable timing, the sickbay door whooshed open and the real Janice Lester strode in followed by Uhura and Marlena - Lieutenant Marlena Moreau, the captain's woman, my concubine.

"Leave us, nurse," ordered Janice, and Christine scurried away.

"What's going on?" I asked, but everyone ignored me.

"Marlena, you've been the Captain's woman for several years now, but you're no longer satisfied in that role and looking for a way out that doesn't involve loss of face, correct?"

Wha...? How could she know that?

"I...yes, I have," she said, studying Janice's face intensely, the face of the person she believed to be me, clearly wondering where this was leading.

"Promotion to a command position on the bridge like, say, communications officer would fit the bill, I assume?"

"Yes, yes it would," she replied, casting a speculative eye over Uhura, who was beginning to look nervous."

"Good, because that's what I'm offering you. I don't want her harmed, but if you successfully challenge Uhura here the position is yours. Do you agree to the challenge."

"I do," she said, pulling out her knife.

"Computer," said Janice, speaking to the air, "turn on sickbay recorders on my authorisation."

"Recorders on," replied an electronic voice.

"Good, then let the challenge commence."

Marlena launched herself at Uhura, who screamed as she fumbled her own knife from where it lay sheathed in the top of her boot. The outcome of the challenge was never in doubt. Marlena was by far the more skilled of the two with a knife, and in less than a minute she was on top of Uhura with her knife at the other woman's throat. Miraculously, neither of them had been cut.

"Do you yield?" she said.

"I yield! I yield!" cried Uhura, tears in her eyes.

"The challenge has been recorded for all the crew to see," said Janice, "and won by Lt Marlena Moreau, who henceforth will be the ship's new communications officer. Furthermore, Lt Nyota Uhura is now reduced in rank to Yeoman, effective immediately. That is all. Computer, cease recording."

"Recording ceased."

"Thank you, Captain," said Marlena, casting a contemptuous glance at Uhura, "I'll head up to the bridge and assume my new position immediately."

When she had gone, Janice helped Uhura to her feet.

"I don't understand," she said, "why did you do that?"

"I told you you wouldn't need to know how to be a communications officer, and now you don't."

"So what will I be doing?"

"You'll report directly to me alone. In essence, you'll be my personal assistant, my secretary."

"Your...secretary?"

The last time I had a personal yeoman was two and a half years ago. Her name was Janice Rand. When I found her adding poison to my food I strangled her to death with my bare hands. In retrospect not the most sensible thing to have done since I then had no way of discovering who had put her up to it.

"Ah, now I get it," I said. "That also explains why the challenge was held here. You and me, Uhura, we're the audience"

"Of course you are," said Janice. "You're the only ones who know what I've done. When it's something as audacious as this you want someone to be able to appreciate your accomplishment, and that's you, ladies. Oh, and Uhura? I'm taking Miss Lester here up to the bridge with me. Get me an apple and a glass of water and meet us up there. And don't hang round; what I'll be showing her is something I want you both to see."

Uhura frowned, as if she was about to say something, but instead she sighed and hurried from the room to comply with Janice's request. I smiled. Janice had made her first mistake and she didn't even know it. As she and I exited sickbay together, her security squad took their positions around us. They stuck with us all the way to the turbolift, two of their number travelling in it with us up to the bridge. Once we were there, Janice swaggered over to the captain's chair and dropped into it. Spock, standing in his usual spot, raised an eyebrow at this but said nothing. Marlena, newly-installed at the communications station, gave Janice a quick smile.

"Has the target been acquired and the phasers locked on, Mr Sulu?" asked Janice.

"Yes sir, they have," replied Sulu, his wide, handsome face marred by the ugly scar on its right side.

"Then get them ready to fire."

Fire? What were they targeting? As I was wondering this so Uhura arrived on the bridge, carrying a small tray bearing the apple and the glass of water Janice had ordered. There were snickers from several of the bridge crew at the sight of their former colleague reduced to such menial duties. Uhura took up position beside the captain's chair and Janice took the apple.

"Thank you, yeoman," she said, biting into it, "you're just in time for the show. OK, Mr Sulu, when you're ready, fire phasers."

"Aye, aye, captain."

I watched on the screen as the ship's mighty phasers fired on a spot on the planet below. A few seconds of this was all it took. Blue flame erupted from the spot, shooting high enough to be visible on the screen, before fading away.

"The excavations..." I whispered, my heart racing.

It was gone. The machine was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

"Captain," said Spock, "I fail to understand why you have destroyed a site that Empire archaeologists were scheduled to investigate shortly."

"I made a command decision, Mr Spock," said Janice. "Miss Lester unearthed something I judged to be a threat to the Empire, and I have now neutralised that threat."

"And what was the nature of the threat?"

"Ancient biological weapons, unstable and too dangerous to be moved. The details will be in my report."

I barely heard this exchange, so horrified was I by what I had just witnessed. The machine was gone, and with it what might well be my only hope of getting my real body back.

"Right," said Janice, getting to her feet, "it's time Miss Lester was placed in the brig. With me, Mr Williams. Spock, you have the chair."

The three of us travelled down in the turbolift together in silence. In fact no one said a word until Janice and I were alone in my cell, with Williams standing guard outside. Then she couldn't help gloating.

"Now do you understand, Janice? By destroying the machine on Camus II I've ensured that our switch is permanent. Never again will you be tall, muscular, and commanding. What you are now - a small, soft, vulnerable woman - is what you will be for the rest of your days. Every time you see your pretty face in a mirror I want you to remember that by letting your guard down, by being too trusting, you earned that face. You're female because you deserve to be, because you allowed yourself to be fooled, to be bested, by a woman. Your manhood is now my manhood. You lost it to me, and I'm keeping it. Men used to follow you into battle. Now no self-respecting man would follow you anywhere but into bed."

When she left me I fell into the deepest funk of my life. I had always known who to bribe, threaten, or kill to get what I wanted, but I could see no way out of this predicament. None of the clout I'd had as Jim Kirk was available to me, and even if it had been I had no idea where or how to apply it in this situation in a way that would do me any good. I spent an unhealthy amount of time staring at my reflection in the small mirror over the wash basin, trying to get my head around moving through the world from now on as a woman with that face and that body. Janice had sneered that no self-respecting man would follow me anywhere but into bed. What if she was right? Would I now have to start using my body to get what I wanted? No, the very idea was repugnant to me. At least, it was right now. Would it stay that repugnant to me? I could imagine situations where I could be so desperate that such considerations would go out the window. I shuddered at the thought.

When I woke the next morning I had those few moments of disorientation you always do, but reality came rushing in when I turned and so felt the weight of my breasts on my chest. No, it had not been just a dream; I really was a woman now. Once I was over the momentary shock, I smiled. A good night's sleep had given me new perspective, and I was annoyed at my despair of the previous day. Stupidly, I'd allowed Janice to get inside my head, to use my attitudes about women against me. I believed women used their bodies to get men to do what they wanted, so it was easy to get me to think I'd have to do the same. But I didn't. This body was small and weak, and while I couldn't do much about the former, I could certainly do something about the latter. And so I began exercising within the limited confines of my cell. This mostly meant push-ups, sit-ups, and running on the spot, and at first it was _hard_, but no gain without pain - a sentiment I know Nurse Chapel would agree with. I had no idea what use I might put any increased strength and stamina to, but you should always be as prepared as you can be to take advantage of any opportunities that might come your way.

Over the next several days, I learned Janice had not actually told anyone else why I had been arrested. So far as they were concerned, I was there under her personal authority. Which meant she was saving my file on her illegal activities as a grave robber until she delivered me to the authorities. Interesting. I also used that time to concentrate on my problem from all angles and, eventually, I had a eureka moment. Finally, I could see a possible, albeit very difficult way out of this predicament.

My cell had a small viewer that connected to the ship's library but, as I discovered when I used it, I was locked out of anything useful. Janice had limited what I could access to torrid romance novels, women's fashion journals, hairstyling and make-up tutorials, literature about the joys of motherhood that exhorted women to do their duty and have lots of babies for the Empire, and more books on how to please a man in bed than I would have guessed existed. Since they would provide at least _some_ mental stimulation, I read the novels, and ignored the rest. Uhura visited me a couple of times. Judging by how well her own hair and make-up were done she clearly hadn't ignored the tutorials.

"The captain ordered me to practice until I got them right," she explained. "He insisted that as his personal yeoman I needed to look my best at all times and to set an example for the other female crewmembers."

"And you went along with it? Shouldn't you at least try to be your own...woman...rather than letting...him...dictate that?"

Even when it was just the two of us, I couldn't allude out loud to Uhura having been a man, and I had to use male pronouns when referring to Janice.

"What can I do? He's the captain."

"This is probably an alien concept, but you could show a little backbone," I suggested. "I'd think more highly of you if you did."

"You would?" she said, looking at me hopefully.

For some reason my opinion mattered to Uhura, though whether that was because as the only other man Janice had turned into a woman she felt we shared a unique connection, or because I now wore the face of the woman she had loved, I didn't know. What was important was that it did, and I could use that.

At the end of my first week in the brig, Janice visited me flanked by my - now her - security team. Leaving them outside she joined me in the cell where we could speak without being overheard. In the week since I'd last seen her something had changed.

"Why are you growing a beard?"

"I wanted to make my own mark on this body, and I like Spock's beard, so I thought 'why not?'. Do you like it?"

I shrugged non-committally. I'd never thought I looked good with facial hair, but for now that was Janice's face and I couldn't stop her from doing whatever she wanted with it.

"Why the visit?" I asked.

"Because I'm disappointed in you, Janice."

"Really? What could I possibly have done locked away alone here in my cell to disappoint you?"

"With the mind-swapping device destroyed it should be impossible for you to reverse the switch, and I like the idea of there still being a Janice Lester out there - I was her for a long time, after all, and I'm rather fond of her. So I decided to test you, to see if you were ready to accept your womanhood. If you were, I was prepared to reconsider handing you over to the Empire's legal system. That's why I limited your library access to things that would help you onto that path, but you've ignored them."

"That version of womanhood holds no appeal for me."

"Then what version does?"

"Fighting to change the system, and becoming captain of a starship again."

Janice laughed incredulously.

"It can't be done. You can't fight the system and win."

"People have been telling me what I can't do all my life, and all my life I've been proving them wrong."

"You're right," sighed Janice, studying my face thoughtfully, "and that's why I daren't let you go. The device on Camus II may have been destroyed, but if anyone could find another way to undo the mind transfer it would be you. I'm sorry it's come to this."

"Me, too," I said.

Following her visit, I hoped Janice might extend my library access, but she didn't. So, just to confuse her, I started watching all the hairstyling and make-up tutorials. It was always good strategy to wrong foot an opponent, and this was the only means of doing so I had at my disposal. Also, if I was going to be a woman for any length of time - and I was pretty sure I was - I might find myself in a situation where those skills would come in useful. There's no such thing as useless knowledge, after all.

The day after Janice called by I had another visitor: Mr Spock. He did not come alone.

"Spock knows who you really are," said Uhura, stepping out from behind him. "I've told him everything."


	4. Chapter 4

Crouched down in my place of concealment, I felt good. For the first time since this nightmare began, the path ahead of me was clear. Janice would be arrested and taken to the brig and I would resume my place in the captain's chair. Oh, there would be mutterings at first about me being a woman but I wasn't, not really. Despite my outward appearance I was still James T. Kirk, one of the most experienced of the Empire's starship captains, and by far the best. That should outweigh any misgivings about my apparent gender, and give me the freedom to seek out a way of restoring Janice and me to our proper bodies. One thing I would need, though, was a way of neutralising the bio-collar that was still limiting my ability to speak of these matters.

Spock, Uhura and I were in the captain's quarters. As Janice's trusted personal yeoman, Uhura had unfettered access to them and had let us in. She had finally turned on Janice, and Janice had no one to blame but herself. That was the mistake she made when she first turned Coleman into Uhura, and then made Uhura her personal servant. However servile they might appear, there's only so much humiliation you can heap on anyone before they turn on you. I had seen it in Uhura's eyes after the fight with Marlena and her appointment as Janice's personal yeoman, and I had stoked her resentment when she visited me in the brig. That effort had now borne fruit. Janice was going down. Now all we needed was for the captain herself to make an appearance.

We did not have to wait long.

When the door whooshed open, Janice strode in leaving her guards outside. She was greeted by the sight of Uhura setting a table for her evening meal.

"Good evening, Captain," said Uhura, "how was your day?"

"Very productive," said Janice, clearly in high spirits, "we only had to announce our presence to pacify the uprising on Callisto III. As soon as they knew the Enterprise was in orbit above them all resistance crumbled. The rebel leaders are being rounded up as we speak and the first executions are scheduled for tomorrow. We've been invited along to observe. I'm looking forward to it."

"I am afraid you won't be attending," said Spock, emerging from his own place of concealment. He was holding a phaser.

"What is this Mr Spock?!" said Janice, looking both worried and outraged. "You've always said you had no desire to depose me."

"Not so. I said I had no desire to depose James T. Kirk. Despite appearances to the contrary, you are not he."

Janice glared at Uhura accusingly.

"What lies has she been telling you?"

"Not lies, the truth!" said Uhura.

"Indeed, and easily confirmed with a mind meld. The mind of Arthur Coleman now resides in the body of Lt Uhura, just as that of Captain Kirk resides in the body of Janice Lester."

This was my cue to step out of the shadows.

"If she's really Jim Kirk, let her tell you so herself," said Janice, stabbing her finger at me. "She can't because she isn't."

"She cannot because of the bio-collar you fitted her with," said Spock calmly, "but as with Lt Uhura, a mind-meld revealed the truth of the situation."

"So what now? Are you going to have me take her place in the brig?"

Janice was beginning to sweat profusely.

"First, I need you to give me that wristband you are wearing."

"So she told you about the Tantalus Field, too," said Janice, removing the wristband and handing it over to Spock.

"I have known about the Tantalus Field for many months. I simply chose not to do anything about it."

This was news to me, and it made me uneasy. Was Spock playing some longer game here I didn't know about?

"Computer, turn on all recording devices in these quarters," said Spock, "and broadcast images ship-wide."

"Recording devices on," said a mechanical voice.

Good. He was going to formally record her arrest and confirm to the crew that I was Captain Kirk. I couldn't afford to damage that body too badly, but before we dumped her in the brig she was going to spend some quality time in the agony booth, something I was going to watch with great pleasure.

"You are unfit to run the Enterprise," said Spock, "and are hereby relieved of command."

He then fired his phaser, disintegrating Janice where she stood.

I heard someone cry out. It was a second or two before I realised it was me.

"The challenge has been recorded for all the crew to see," said Spock. "Having eliminated my predecessor, James T. Kirk, I will be assuming the position of Captain of the Enterprise. In consequence of this, Lt Marlena Moreau is promoted to Commander and will be assuming my former position as First Officer. Lt Jamie Lisa will be the ship's new communications officer. All these changes are effective immediately. That is all. Computer, cease recording."

"Recording ceased," replied the computer.

I was stunned by the death of Janice and the destruction of my true body, but I also knew what Marlena's new promotion meant. I shook myself out of my shock and turned on Spock angrily.

"So it's true; you no longer believe in the Prime Directive?"

"That all civilisations shall be made a part of the Empire using whatever force is necessary? No, I do not. Nor does Lt Moreau. We have learned of a better way."

"Then my suspicions were correct," I said, "the two of you _have_ suffered cultural contamination."

"If you wish to call it that, then yes."

"So that's why you staged your coup now after years of claiming you didn't want to be captain. You need the Enterprise as a power base, a stepping stone on the way to positions of greater authority where you can put those fanciful notions into play. You're aiming for Starfleet Command, maybe even the Council itself."

"Correct. If I wish to alter the culture of the entire Empire, the logical place to start is with the culture of this ship. There was also another reason I did not make my move earlier. You would not understand but I am a Vulcan, with Vulcan codes of honor and loyalty. Killing you would have violated those codes. Fortunately, the current situation presented me with the means to kill Captain Kirk without actually harming you."

Logical. Chilling, but logical.

"So because I'm not...because I...damnit!"

"Fascinating," said Spock, raising an eyebrow. "In spite of everyone present knowing the mind of Captain Kirk resides in your body, the bio-collar will still not let you allude to that fact."

"What happens now?" I asked.

"Captain Kirk is dead. His death was witnessed by the entire crew. Which leaves us with the problem of what to do about you, Miss Lester."

Miss Lester. So that's how it was going to be.

"The code that would not let me kill you also would not see you deposited on a planet without any means. As a civilian you have no official position on this ship, but it has been your home and I would prefer not to deprive you of that home. Your lack of any military status means all sensitive areas are closed to you, but there still needs to be a reason for Janice Lester to remain on board. Fortunately, Yeoman Uhura has a solution to that problem. Yeoman?"

"Thank you, sir," said Uhura, stepping forward. "Mr Spock has given me the file you'd assembled on Janice over the years, a file that would see her - now you - either executed or spending the rest of her life on some hell-hole of a prison planet. He's left the decision on what to do with it up to me, a decision that depends entirely on you."

"What do you mean?" I said, not understanding.

"Being a yeoman's woman will not be as prestigious as being a captain's woman," said Spock, "particularly for a civilian, but I believe you will find it a comfortable life if you accept it."

Uhura smiled, and gently ran the back of her forefinger down my cheek.

"When I met Janice it was love at first sight. She's gone, but here you are, and that face and body I fell so hard for is now your face and body. She was never very nice to me, but you will be. Eventually, you might even come to love me. I'd like that."

So that was it. I either accepted the position of yeoman's concubine or I was off the Enterprise and facing Empire justice.

"Well played," I said, forcing myself to smile, "you've put me into a position where I have no choice but to accept. I respect you for that."

And I did. It might be grudging respect, but having schemed and fought to achieve my own goals I could appreciate that skill in others. Uhura had made a deal with Spock, and I was the price for her cooperation.

"Good," said Uhura, grinning triumphantly. "You must have had fantasies about what you'd like to do with Uhura, just as I had fantasies about what I'd like to do with Janice. Now we'll get to explore those fantasies together."

The finger that had been stroking my cheek now lifted my chin, as she leaned in to kiss me softly on the lips. I offered no resistance as she slid an arm around my waist, pulling me closer. When, predictably, she turned that soft brush of our lips into a full-on kiss I responded in kind. I would bide my time and play the part Uhura wanted me to, would be her woman and even derive what pleasure I could from it, but I would never lose sight of my ultimate goal. My real body might have been destroyed, but I know where to find a replacement. In that other universe I briefly visited last year there is a second Captain Kirk. Somehow, I'm going to find my way back there, and take his body from him.

I'm now a concubine, unable to tell anyone who I really am, and not even a member of Starfleet, so it isn't going to be easy. Long odds then, but I've beaten worse and I'll beat these. Why? Because my name may be Janice Lester...

...but I'm Captain James T. Kirk.

The End.

_Note:_

_1. I've always wondered how adventures in the Original Series might have played out in the Mirror Universe, and since I've been riffing on 'Turnabout Intruder' that was the logical one for me to explore. In the case of, say, 'A Piece of the Action', the difference is fairly obvious - what was subterfuge for our Kirk would've been the real thing for mirror-Kirk, and the Empire would've taken 60% of the action, not 40%. As for other encounters...well, I chose to explore the much disliked 'Turnabout Intruder'. Perhaps I'll have a go at the equally derided 'Spock's Brain' next. It's always more interesting to me to take the road less travelled._

_2. The sexism of the original 'Turnabout Intruder' has always been problematic. In 'The Second Life of Janice Lester' I came up with my own explanation of how to square this with the more liberal attitudes displayed in the ST shows set either side of the original series. In the case of the mirror universe this is less of a problem because _**of course** _that's going to be a more sexist and misogynistic society._

_3. Yes, the final lines of this tale are almost identical to those of 'The Second Life of Janice Lester'. It's almost as if I had a larger plan in mind._


End file.
